[meteorite-list] Meteor Clue To End Of Middle East Civilizations

From: Michel <Michel_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 09:47:05 2004
Message-ID: <00f301c166dd$1999cd00$cb1bf8c1_at_nwc.fr>

Dear Ron and list

Interesting indeed.
Have you more info including coordinates of the crater ?

best wishes

Michel
----- Message d'origine -----
De : Ron Baalke <baalke_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>
À : Meteorite Mailing List <meteorite-list_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Envoyé : lundi 5 novembre 2001 17:58
Objet : [meteorite-list] Meteor Clue To End Of Middle East Civilizations


>
>
http://www.portal.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2001/11/04/wmet0
4.xml&sSheet=/news/2001/11/04/ixhomef.html
>
> Meteor clue to end of Middle East civilisations
> By Robert Matthews
> The Sunday Telegraph (United Kingdom)
> November 4, 2001
>
> SCIENTISTS have found the first evidence that a devastating meteor impact
in
> the Middle East might have triggered the mysterious collapse of
> civilisations more than 4,000 years ago.
>
> Studies of satellite images of southern Iraq have revealed a two-mile-wide
> circular depression which scientists say bears all the hallmarks of an
> impact crater. If confirmed, it would point to the Middle East being
struck
> by a meteor with the violence equivalent to hundreds of nuclear bombs.
>
> Today's crater lies on what would have been shallow sea 4,000 years ago,
and
> any impact would have caused devastating fires and flooding.
>
> The catastrophic effect of these could explain the mystery of why so many
> early cultures went into sudden decline around 2300 BC.
>
> They include the demise of the Akkad culture of central Iraq, with its
> mysterious semi-mythological emperor Sargon; the end of the fifth dynasty
of
> Egypt's Old Kingdom, following the building of the Great Pyramids and the
> sudden disappearance of hundreds of early settlements in the Holy Land.
>
> Until now, archaeologists have put forward a host of separate explanations
> for these events, from local wars to environmental changes.
>
> Recently, some astronomers have suggested that meteor impacts could
explain
> such historical mysteries.
>
> The crater's faint outline was found by Dr Sharad Master, a geologist at
the
> University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, on satellite images of the Al
> 'Amarah region, about 10 miles north-west of the confluence of the Tigris
> and Euphrates and home of the Marsh Arabs.
>
> "It was a purely accidental discovery," Dr Master told The Telegraph last
> week. "I was reading a magazine article about the canal-building projects
of
> Saddam Hussein, and there was a photograph showing lots of formations -one
> of which was very, very circular."
>
> Detailed analysis of other satellite images taken since the mid-1980s
showed
> that for many years the crater contained a small lake.
>
> The draining of the region, as part of Saddam's campaign against the Marsh
> Arabs, has since caused the lake to recede, revealing a ring-like ridge
> inside the larger bowl-like depression - a classic feature of meteor
impact
> craters.
>
> The crater also appears to be, in geological terms, very recent. Dr Master
> said: "The sediments in this region are very young, so whatever caused the
> crater-like structure, it must have happened within the past 6,000 years."
>
> Reporting his finding in the latest issue of the journal Meteoritics &
> Planetary Science, Dr Master suggests that a recent meteor impact is the
> most plausible explanation for the structure.
>
> A survey of the crater itself could reveal tell-tale melted rock. "If we
> could find fragments of impact glass, we could date them using radioactive
> dating techniques," he said.
>
> A date of around 2300 BC for the impact may also cast new light on the
> legend of Gilgamesh, dating from the same period. The legend talks of "the
> Seven Judges of Hell", who raised their torches, lighting the land with
> flame, and a storm that turned day into night, "smashed the land
> like a cup", and flooded the area.
>
> The discovery of the crater has sparked great interest among scientists.
>
> Dr Benny Peiser, who lectures on the effects of meteor impacts at John
> Moores University, Liverpool, said it was one of the most significant
> discoveries in recent years and would corroborate research he and others
have done.
>
> He said that craters recently found in Argentina date from around the same
> period - suggesting that the Earth may have been hit by a shower of large
> meteors at about the same time.
>
>
>
>
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Received on Tue 06 Nov 2001 11:04:04 AM PST